I made you an arts section!
VISUAL ART:
Matt Stangel reviews the Portland Art Museum’s Disquieted, a group show that really, really wants to freak you out.
BOOKS:
Dave Bow reviews Max Watman’s Chasing the White Dog, a book about moonshine that sounds super interesting, but reads like this:
“On top of my newly purchased antique boiler, there was a 3½-inch threaded hole into which screwed a large brass fitting resembling the bell of a rustic, steam-powered trumpet. This cap was topped with a smaller threaded hole. I figured the smaller hole was nominally an inch but it measured more like an inch and an eighth. Perhaps it was therefore nominally an inch and a quarter, since people selling you materials rarely round things down.”
THEATER:
I get all gushy about Third Rail’s production of American Buffalo.
Jane Carlen does not gush, and in fact exercises a fair amount of restraint, in her review of The Devil and Billy Markham, a show for grownups penned by the great Shel Silverstein.
Side note: I recently asked Twitter if anyone knew where local theater people went to anonymously shit-talk one another, now that Followspot has closed down. Well, I think I found it: dirtybombpdx isn’t pulling any punches in their reviews of local productions. (I disagree with the reviewer’s assessment of American Buffalo, but I could’ve written that Rocket Man review myself—I think it’s dead on.)
Our theater picks of the weekend: Fall of the House‘s sixth season opens tonight at Theater! Theatre! American Buffalo and The Receptionist are both worth your time, or you could take a chance on PCS’ 39 Steps, a Hitchcock spoof that opens tonight.